I've never seen anyone, let alone my good friend, court disaster for so long. The way Alex Honnold solos Yosemite's Mount Watkins, El Capitan and Half Dome is so precarious that I can't get myself to replay the footage, as if the script will somehow go horribly awry and he'll plummet to his death on screen.

You've probably heard of Honnold, the 27-year-old prodigy from California whose ropeless ascents of enormous rock walls have made him world-famous. You may recognize him from a National Geographic cover last year, poised on a tiny ledge with his back against the wall of Half Dome. Maybe you saw him on TV where, most notably, he was featured on the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

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Or if you're especially keen, perhaps you remember his name from many of my columns over the years. From early 2007 through the end of 2009, Honnold and I partnered up for climbing trips to Russia, Spain, France, Mexico and all over the western U.S., many of which I've written about. But he finally wised up to how much I slowed him down.

The film with Honnold soloing is called "Honnold 3.0," and it's one of four short movies (12 to 32 minutes long) that premiere Thursday night at the Reel Rock Film Tour at Chautauqua Park.

"Honnold 3.0" quickly recaps his early climbing career and his transition from "a dorky kid living in his van," as the movie lines go, to an accidentally famous superhero. Then it brings us to 2012, as he wonders what to do next. We see him ropeless in Bishop, Calif., on the first ascent of a 30-foot tall boulder, barely clinging to holds so tiny that he might pop off any second. I'm pretty sure I held my breath through the entire scene.

Then comes the footage so outrageous and gripping that I'm half-excited and half-dreading seeing it again Thursday night: Honnold soloing Yosemite's three biggest walls in a single day. Aside from the occasional use of a rope and gear, he races up these walls untethered, where a single slip would be fatal.

Honnold is the only climber in the world who could possibly endure, let alone survive, this mental and physical suffer-fest. It's downright terrifying. Especially the part where he hangs from the fingertips of one hand, unroped, more than 1,000 feet above the valley floor. He fumbles with a carabiner to clip himself to the safety of a bolt, but just before he clips ... his foot slips.

Thankfully, "Honnold 3.0" is the grand finale of the evening, so we can exhaust our adrenaline on this one.

The Reel Rock tour is Boulder's largest climbing community event of the year. And this year it will be extra special because Honnold will be in attendance both nights, meeting people and signing posters.

Normally the reclusive Honnold cowers from big events with live audiences but, thanks to me, he has no excuse not to attend this year's tour: He's staying in Boulder through the weekend to be one of the groomsmen at my wedding Saturday.

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